Having Tom back shouldn't have made much difference, in the greater scheme of things. It wasn't like anything changed. They looked at a few townhouses online, but the number of places in their price range, on the market in early February, wasn't exactly huge. After they talked about Tom's family's antics that one time, the subject didn't come up again. Everything went on the same way it had before, except Nick had another person in their small house.

Except somehow, miraculously, everything was different and nothing hurt at all.

That wasn't quite true. Nick was still afraid that Baudin was going to jump out from behind a bush, or from underneath his car or something, and finish what he'd started before the team had deployed. In a way, those fears were sharper, because Baudin was still in the country, and Nick couldn't tell himself those fears were silly anymore.

At the same time, Nick wasn't alone anymore. He was jumpy, but he had Tom right there by his side. If he got spooked by something, Tom just squeezed his hand and moved on. When he was alone, he had to plaster a smile onto his face and pretend nothing was wrong so Sammy didn't get freaked out. Now he could just be himself and let someone else help. Nick didn't have words to describe how good that felt.

All in all, things felt like they were looking up. That was why, when Nick's phone rang on Friday the week after Tom got back from deployment, he didn't expect there to be anything wrong. "Hello?"

"Mr. Kosloski? This is Dr. Wilson, Sam's principal. I'm with his teacher, the school nurse, and the school psychologist, and we'd like to have a conversation with you if it's at all possible."

Nick sighed. "Look, I'm at work right now—"

"It's a matter of some urgency."

Ice water shot through Nick's veins. "I'll be right there.”

He explained the situation to his boss. She looked surprised, but she didn't make any trouble for him about going to the school. The ER wasn't overly busy right then, and they could probably tolerate being down by one RN.

He rushed to the school and raced into the building. Schools had an eerie air to them after hours, he'd noticed. During the day they were loud, raucous, living places. Such places shouldn't be quiet, ever. A chill ran up his spine as he searched for the main office. "I'm looking for Dr. Wilson?"

A tall, clean-shaven white man emerged from around a corner. "Mr. Kosloski. Thank you for joining us. Please, come in."

Nick shook his head. "Just take me to Sammy, please."

Wilson frowned, brows drawn together for a moment, and then he chuckled. "Ah. I understand now. No, Sammy isn't in any physical distress. He's in detention, but it's hardly the first time."

Nick pressed his lips together. "My son's been in detention before and this is the first I'm hearing about it?"

Wilson nodded. "Yes. Please follow me."

Nick followed, his pulse racing. Something was very wrong with this picture. He couldn't help but feel like he'd been ambushed somehow. "Is it your school's policy to put students into detention, or otherwise discipline them, without informing the parents? How are we supposed to be aware that there's a problem, and address it, if we're not being kept informed of the goings on at school?"

Wilson raised a dark eyebrow. Nick wondered, a little hysterically, if the principal was going to give him detention too. "Mr. Kosloski, if your son isn't telling you he's getting detention, the problem is yours, not ours. It's up to him to be honest, and not to us to tattle."

Nick bit down on the inside of his cheek. "You seriously think fifth graders are just going to go home and what, brag about getting detention?” He followed Wilson into a conference room with a dark, round wooden table. The table looked nice, high-end and fairly new. Considering what Nick knew about the district and its funding, it looked out of place.

The other people in the room were all women. Nick knew Ms. Finch, Sammy's teacher. She stared at Nick for a long moment and then directed her gaze down at the soft brace he still had to wear. The other two were a dark-haired woman in her thirties and a middle-aged woman with short, tight curls.

"Your son has been getting into fights, Mr. Kosloski.” Wilson took a seat at the table, leaving one for Nick. The seat left his back to the door, and he could only squirm at that. "It's not every day, and he seems to be targeting these other boys for aggression."

Nick scoffed. "There's not an aggressive bone in Sammy's body. He picks up spiders and carries them outside so they don't get hurt when he vacuums."

The middle aged woman rolled her eyes. "Your son is an alpha, Mr. Kosloski. They're no angels, even when they have a father present. And you're a single mother. You haven't given him that, have you?"

Nick clenched his jaw. "I am his father, thank you. And as it happens, his other father and I have reconnected since we moved here.” He put a hand on his baby bump. "Let's get back to your anti-alpha bias."

The woman put a hand on her chest and gaped at him. "I'm only speaking the truth, Mr. Kosloski. I'm an RN. I'm educated in these things."

"Then you need to update your continuing professional education credits. I'm an RN myself.” Nick bit back an even nastier retort. "What is it that's instigating these fights? Are these other boys ganging up on him? Are they acting out because Sammy's from out of the area?"

"Alpha boys are usually the aggressors, Mr Kosloski.” The younger woman put her hand on Nick's bad arm and simpered at him. "Trust us. We have a combined full century of dealing with children of all gender and sexual identities. We know what we're talking about, because we've really seen it all. That's not really why we're here, though."

Nick stared at her until she removed her hand. "You're telling me that you've been regularly sending my son to detention, without my knowledge, and now you want me to believe that's not the real reason you've pulled me away from work?"

Wilson sighed and folded his fingers on top of Sammy's student record. The record was, Nick noted, very thick. "I must say, Mr. Kosloski, I expected you to be a lot more cooperative than this."

"That's an unreasonable expectation.” Nick didn't pull any punches. "When you inform someone that you've been singling their son out for discrimination based on his gene identity, you don't get to assume compliance. Sorry. That's not how this works."

The nurse scowled and pointed her finger at him. "I told you, we have decades of experience with this."

"And we have laws in this country.” Nick smiled, bright and brittle. "And lawyers."

An uncomfortable silence followed. The battle lines were drawn. Nick struggled to keep his breathing calm and even. He was ready to flip the table and run from room to room until he found Sammy, but what would he do then? He could pull his son from the school, but what would he do with him after that? Nick wasn't a teacher. He wasn't qualified to teach him anything but, maybe, rudimentary nursing.

Then Wilson cleared his throat. "We're not really here to discuss Sam's behavior, except as a symptom of something larger. The issue, Mr. Kosloski, is his home environment. We understand that you're a single parent."

"That's not a crime yet.” Nick held his back perfectly straight.

"Many of our students come from single parent families, or from broken homes. And none of his previous schools report any issues of abuse. Nevertheless, we do see a pattern of instability. I'm sure we can all agree that you haven't provided a consistent and stable experience for Sam, is that correct?"

Nick flinched. He needed some water, or some food. He was light headed, and he couldn't cope. "Excuse me? I'm sure I'm not the first parent to have financial difficulties, especially if I'm not the first single parent you've dealt with."

Wilson gave him a condescending smile that he probably intended to be kind. "No, of course not. And we have a lot of military families, so we're used to it. What's concerning is that after you moved to Portsmouth, you started spending part of your time at your home and part of your time at the home of a man by the name of Tom Fitzpatrick."

Nick spread his hands wide. "Yeah. My personal life is none of your business, but that's Sammy's father. I mentioned we'd reconnected."

"Uh-huh. There's some dispute about Sam's paternity, of course, but for now Fitzpatrick seems to accept it."

"You know what?” Nick stood up and reached for his phone. "I don't have to take this. I'm calling my lawyer.”

"Sit down, Mr. Kosloski. We're all here for Sam's benefit.” The younger woman, who could only be the psychologist, nodded as she spoke. Her huge earrings swung as she nodded, exaggerating the motion.

"Right," said Dr. Wilson, echoing her over-done nod. "And because we're here for Sam, we need to make sure he's not being exposed to anything that could be harmful to him. Anything such as a culture of abuse."

Nick drew himself up to his full height. "Culture of abuse? You want to run that one by me again?"

"Oh come on, Mr. Kosloski. You were in the hospital for days before Thanksgiving. You came out with a face that looked like you'd gone ten rounds in a MMA cage fight. All of this is only after you 'reconnected' with the boy's alleged father, and whatever it is that happened with him, you stayed away from him for ten years for a reason.” The nurse crossed her arms over her chest. "And of course he only started acting out after his father came back into his life again. Don't think even for a second that anyone didn't pick up on that."

Nick blinked down at her. "Do you really have nothing better to do that sit here and gossip about the parents' personal lives?"

"It's not gossip when it's having a negative effect on the children's behavior.” Wilson shuffled the papers. "We're mandated reporters, Mr. Kosloski. We have to report to the authorities when we suspect that there's a problem. And allowing an alpha child to remain in a home where he's witnessing abuse toward an omega parent is, quite frankly, a problem."

"Tom is not abusing me.” Nick clenched his hands into fists at his side. "I was attacked by an acquaintance. There's a police report."

"I'm sure there is.” The psychologist patted him on the hand that rested in the soft brace. "Listen. If it were just the abuse it would be one thing. You're not the first omega to not understand that he doesn't deserve to be abused."

"We've heard other concerns, from other sources.” Wilson's mouth tightened.

"Oh yeah? Like who? I don't know anyone here who would have that kind of grudge against me."

"We're not obligated to name our sources.” Wilson flipped through his papers. "Again, these are people who all have only the strongest concerns for Sam at heart. I have someone who called up with fears that you're leaving your son alone with your abuser—"

"Tom is not abusing me!” Nick pulled up Serena's number. "I'm getting my lawyer involved with this.”

"Mr. Kosloski, there's nothing for an attorney to do here.” Wilson smirked at him.

Serena picked up after the third ring. "Serena Torres."

"Serena, hi, this is Nick Kosloski. I'm at Sammy's school, and I've got a problem. They're accusing Tom of abusing me and claiming that I'm endangering Sammy by exposing him to an abusive relationship.”

"Oh for the love of—” Serena cut herself off. "Okay. Put someone there on the phone. Briefly. Then, I want you to collect your son, and all of his things. Do you understand me? Nothing of his is staying there."

"Yeah. Got it. Thanks, Serena."

"Don't thank me yet.” Her voice sounded grim.

Nick passed his phone over to Wilson, since he seemed to be in charge. Wilson smirked as he greeted Serena, and then he sat up a little straighter. "Look, we have Sam's best interests at heart. He's clearly in an abusive environment, whether or not you want to acknowledge it.” He paused. "Well, you can waste your time and your client's money, but there's no way any judge is going to take that case. We're mandated reporters. We have to inform Child Protective Services if we suspect abuse, and we do.” Another pause. "Miss, we've already contacted CPS. The investigation has already begun."

Nick couldn't get enough air.

Wilson passed the phone back to him. Nick accepted it woodenly.

"Nick, listen to me. Our plans haven't changed. You're still going to grab Sammy, and you're still going to pull him out of that school. I'm going to court tomorrow to file for an injunction against that investigation. I have all of the paperwork from the assault, everything. But Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"It's not going to come through immediately. And their investigation will start. You're going to have to tell Tom to get lost, at least for a while."

"What?” Nick hissed into the phone.

"I'm sorry, Nick. It's not permanent, or at least it doesn't have to be. But if you don't at least show willingness, you could lose your son to foster care. We're going to fight, and we're going to fight hard. We're going to hit them everywhere, but this is a long-haul fight. You'd better buckle up. Now go get your son before those smug bastards can do any more damage to him."

"Okay.” Nick took a deep breath and disconnected the call. Then he turned to look at the assembled administrators. "Effective immediately, my son is no longer a student at your school. Any further communication you want to have with me or him will need to go through my attorney, Serena Torres. Since he's not a student here, you have no authority to keep him in detention. We'll be leaving. Now."

Wilson sneered. "You're only hurting your chances of keeping your son out of foster care, Mr. Kosloski."

Nick held up a hand. "Take it up with my attorney. Take everything up with my attorney. I'm sure you'll be hearing from her frequently.” He turned on his heel and ran down the hall.

He had no idea where the detention room was, but he ran until he found it. The new baby kicked in his belly, evidently loving the adrenaline.

Nick found Sammy in a random room that was decorated for first grade. "Dad!" he greeted, jumping up.

"Your detention period isn't over, boy," drawled the teacher at the desk.

"It is now. Sammy's leaving your school for good.” Nick grabbed Sammy's hand. "Come on. Let's go home."

***

Tom had been having a fantastic day until Darrell called.

"Er, hi there, Tom. How're things?"

Tom closed his eyes. He was just about to get back into the car and head to Portsmouth. Training had gone well, he'd had a good conversation with Baldinotti about White Dawn, and he'd managed to completely avoid having contact with Baudin. A call from his lawyer that started so nervously wasn't likely to continue that streak. "Well, as happy as I am to hear from someone who's had my back through all of this stuff, I can't help but think things are about to get bad.'"

"You're not wrong.” Darrell sighed. "I just got off the phone with Serena—Serena Torres, I mean."

Tom smirked in spite of his trepidation. If things were getting friendly between the two lawyers, that was probably a good thing. Right? "Oh yeah? What did she have to say?"

"That you shouldn't go over to see Nick and Sammy tonight, or for the foreseeable future."

Tom stopped in his tracks. He'd been on his way out to his car, but now he froze in the doorway. People bumped into him and cursed him out, but he only sort of heard them. "Excuse me?"

Darrell sighed. "It's this whole thing. Apparently the school started an investigation into Nick, because they're saying you're abusing him. Yes, he stuck up for you. Vigorously. And he and Serena are fighting this whole thing. But until they've cleared the investigation, you're going to have to stay away."

Tom stepped out of the doorway. "Wait a minute. They can just make a wild accusation and all of a sudden my whole life is ruined? Just like that? Do I not get a say? Do I not get to defend myself? What the actual fuck, Darrell?"

"I know. It seems preposterous. It's temporary, Tom."

"Yeah, it was supposed to be temporary for me to get booted into the Navy too, and look at me now.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Where the hell is all of this coming from?"

Darrell paused. "I'm not sure. Not entirely. Nick wasn't exactly calm the second time he spoke with Serena.” He clicked his tongue for a seconds. "He said part of it was that the staff seemed to have it 'in' for alphas. I'm not sure what that was about. But there was stuff about the time your teammate assaulted Nick, and then he said something else."

Tom punched the wall. "You're killing me here, Darrell."

"Sorry. My notes are a little hard to read, and of course this is all second hand. Nick said they seemed to have a lot more information about his life, and about your lives together, than they should. A lot of it seemed skewed, too. They kept referring to you as Sammy's 'alleged' father, for example."

"God damn it. It's my parents, isn't it?” Tom caught himself on the verge of hyperventilating. "What is this, with them lashing out at my partner and my kid in this way?"

"I couldn't say. If they are the ones behind it, though, I'd say they're very savvy and very dangerous. It doesn't seem like a farm couple from Nebraska would have the kind of expertise necessary to pull something like this off. You know them better. What do you think?"

Tom ran his tongue against his teeth. "I think you're not wrong.” He rubbed his knuckles. "I've got to talk to Nick. I can't deal with this—I'm not going to let them separate us."

"You can't go and talk to Nick. Not yet. Not until Serena's taken care of the whole thing with CPS."

"That could take years!”

"It could.” Doug's implacable voice was like a stab to his back. "I hope it won't, especially once we show the deliberate campaign for your parents to get at your benefits, but it could well take a good long time. You need to be prepared for that, Tom. It ain't fair and it ain't right, but this is one of those things we can't work around. We have to just kind of deal with it and push through it."

"Are you seriously telling me I can't be there when my next kid is born, either?” Tom blinked away tears. Everything he'd come so close to having was disappearing before his eyes.

"Son, there was a good chance of you being deployed to God knows where when that sweet angel is born. It's going to be okay. Now. Who do you think could have helped your parents with this stuff?"

Tom gripped the phone so hard he almost broke it. "Baudin. The guy's an ass."

"He is. Think he'd really do something like this?"

Tom gritted his teeth. "I didn't think he'd go and beat seven kinds of shit out of Nick, but here we are. Thanks for letting me know the score. I've got some research to go do."

"Don't do anything rash, Tom. I can't save you from an assault charge.” Darrell's voice went up half an octave.

Tom wondered exactly how it worked that Baudin could get out of an assault charge, but Tom couldn't. He didn't ask that out loud, though. He knew why. "Don't worry, Darrell. I'm sure everything will be just fine. I'll give you a call when I know what's going on, okay?"

"Sure thing.” Darrell hung up, and Tom headed back inside.

He found Baudin with Chief and DeWitt, in a conference room. They were probably meeting about whatever piss-poor discipline the Navy had meted out. It would be wildly inappropriate for Tom to go barging in. Fortunately, or maybe less fortunately, Tom didn't care anymore.

He slammed the door open. DeWitt and Chief both jumped to their feet, guns drawn. They were surprised by his presence,  Baudin, though, he just smirked and stretched out, fingers laced together behind his head. Tom saw red.

"Fitzpatrick!  What the hell do you think you're doing?” DeWitt holstered his weapon.

Tom ignored him in favor of punching the smirk off Baudin's face. Baudin fell to the concrete floor, spitting out teeth.

Chief covered his eyes with his free hand, putting his gun away. "Aw, fuck."

Baudin looked up, blood dribbling down his chin. "I did you a fucking favor, you moron. Get it through your thick, corn-fed skull."

DeWitt had been looking at Tom with rage in his eyes, but now he turned to Baudin. "What exactly did you do?"

"I saved him from this imbecilic thing he's got going on with that skank from back home. Again. This time, it's permanent. That case is going to be tied up in court for years. And if you don't think that slutty little Nicky, who's going to have to be buried in a Y shaped coffin he's such a whore, is going to find someone else in the meantime, then you're even dumber than I thought.” Baudin wiped at the blood on his face.

Tom lunged for Baudin again, but Chief got between them. "So, after being disciplined by the Navy for assaulting Nick, you made the brilliant decision to do what, exactly?"

Tom opened his mouth. He strained against Chief's hold, ready to tear into his nemesis again, but DeWitt slammed his hand down over Tom's lips. "I want to hear from Baudin," he said. He met Tom's eyes and shook his head, just a bit. "You've had your say, now let him have his."

Wait, what?

Baudin must not have seen that little shake of the head, because he just curled his split lip and scoffed. "Come on, man, the school was already thinking it. After I rearranged Trampy's face for him, it was already on their minds. And after what I heard, when I talked to your parents, bro? Man, I'm glad I did, too.”

Tom lunged for him again. He couldn't speak, because of the hand over his mouth, but he could absolutely yell wordlessly.

Fortunately for Tom, Chief knew him well enough to know what he wanted to ask. "You spoke to his parents."

"Hell yeah, I did. I knew his parents wouldn't be so keen on him getting caught up with a loser like Nick, right? So I called up and asked around. They were only too happy to tell me all about what a whore your sweet little Nick was. How he slept with everyone in sight, or at least everyone with a cock. You're not even little Sammy's father, man. Trust me. You're being taken in."

"Oh, really.” DeWitt pulled his hand away, so Tom could speak freely. Chief didn't let go, though. "He was a virgin, the first time we had sex. And I'm not the jealous type, but we spent so much time together, there was no time for him to be with anyone else. Unless you want me to believe that Honors English was somehow just a revolving bedroom door. I'm pretty sure word would have gotten around about that. Word usually does, when it comes to free and easy sex in high school.” He bit the inside of his cheeks.

DeWitt looked over at Baudin. "So you're the one who told his parents he'd gotten back together with Nick."

"Well, duh.” Baudin spread his hands wide. "I wanted to know who this guy was. I'm always looking out for my bros."

"Mmm-hmm. Did they tell you they were going to wait until you were all deployed to start trying to access his death benefits?” Chief raised an eyebrow. "Or his pension?"

"Wait, my pension too?” Tom snapped his head around as far as it would go, to try to get a better look at Chief.

"Oh, yeah. I got notified about that one last week. It sparked some questions in the investigative division. I wasn't supposed to tell, but it seems relevant here."

Baudin lost a little color, but he stuck his chin out. "Look. Why would they lie? They're his parents. They want what's best for their son."

DeWitt snorted. "This platoon is chock full of guys whose parents didn't want what was best for their kids. Let's be real. Even yours didn't, Baudin, and that's the only reason I'm not already asking for you to be court-martialed. What exactly did you do?” He stepped into Baudin's space. "That's an order."

Baudin tried to meet DeWitt's eye. He failed. "I might have put a bug in the school's ear about the whole abuse thing. Like I said, they were already thinking it. And then I pointed out how you'd been apart for ten years and then you'd just gotten back together, and then you showed up and he started looking like that?” Baudin grinned his bloody grin at Tom. "Easy peasy.”

Chief's grip tightened. "If you kill him, it's murder," he growled into Tom's ear. "And then that little boy of yours keeps going through life thinking alphas are violent monsters. That what you want?"

Tom snarled, but he stopped struggling. "You seriously accused me of abusing Nick, because you couldn't control me?"

Baudin shrugged. "You weren't listening. The guy's trouble. Your folks wouldn't lie about that."

"You mean like they didn't lie when they just opted not to tell me he was pregnant, but told him I knew. Did it ever occur to you to question why my parents would share that kind of shit with a complete stranger, Baudin? Or are you such a privileged piece of crap that you're just used to people telling you anything you want to hear? Guess what? You played yourself. You got suckered into a dumbass scheme by my parents to try to get my money."

"Oh. And you confessed to what you did in front of three superior officers.” DeWitt smiled at him, just as sweet as pie. "So you're going to face some actual consequences this time, Baudin. Besides losing a few teeth, I mean.” He nodded to Chief. "Call the master-at-arms, and have him brought down to the brig."

The masters-at-arms showed up quickly. Baudin didn't resist as he was disarmed and cuffed. Only then did the rest of the men relax. "I am so, so sorry.” DeWitt collapsed into a chair. "I mean I knew he was bad off, and not the brightest bulb on the tree sometimes, but I had no idea he was capable of something like this."

Tom bit back a snappy retort. If a man would force his way into another man's home and beat the crap out of a defenseless omega, he was capable of just about anything. Instead, he rubbed at his temples. "What do I do here?” He looked up at his superiors. "I want to go to Nick's place, tell him what happened, and never leave his side again."

"What would your lawyer say to that?” Chief grinned with one corner of his mouth. It was an oddly sad gesture.

"He'd tell me to stay home.” Tom blew out a sudden, forceful stream of air. It wasn't a sigh, not quite. "He'd say something like, 'We can't stop the process with CPS, we have to let them finish their investigation.'"

"Sadly, he'd probably be right.” DeWitt slumped in his seat. He looked thirty years older as he stared at the table. "I should have seen this coming. He's never faced a consequence for anything in his life. Why would he believe he'd face one now?"

"I know.” Tom bit his tongue. No part of him thought Baudin would face a consequence for this, either. Was conspiring with people in another state to have someone's kid taken away even a crime? "I just—there has to be a way to let Nick know what's going on. I have to let him know that I love him, that I'm taking care of the things I can take care of.” He tugged at his hair. "I've brought him nothing but pain."

"And yet he loves you.” Chief pulled out his phone and started texting. "And there is a way, of course there is."

Tom scowled at Chief, and then he remembered. "Mal. And Tony."

"Exactly. Navy is a family, Tom. SEALs more so. We're going to make sure the two of you know what's going on with each other, even if you can't be together right then and there.” He grinned up at Tom. "Aw, look at that. It looks like I'm going to be hosting a couple of Kosloskis for a little while.” He winked. "Don't you worry. They're not going to be alone."